When someone gets robbed there are some direct costs and benefits. Firstly, the perpetrator receives the goods and or services, and may also derive some pleasure from the activity itself. Secondly the victim suffers the loss of goods and services, and is hurt by the fact they have become a victim. If this crime is […]
Supposedly there is a plastic bag ban in China, and plans to introduce one in Australia. Now the reason these places want to ban plastic bags has to do with externalities associated with plastic bags (Aussie), both as a pollutant and in terms of the aesthetic appeal (China). I’m not generally a fan of banning […]
If you are desparately in need of some New Zealand focused economics over January, take a look at the archive of Infometrics articles for the Dominion Post. The next Dom Post article will appear on January 26th, hopefully the team hear will be back to writing by then. If you would like more information on […]
January will be a quiet month for blogging here, but once the numbers start rolling out I’ll start writing again. One thing that I saw that interesting me was this short quote from Greg Mankiw’s blog: “The nation’s largest business group said Tuesday it will oppose big tax increases in 2008 but might support increases […]
Today’s Balance of Payments release put the current account deficit at 8.3% of GDP. This was right on the button of market expectations, however some interesting issues cropped up which will be important for tomorrows GDP release. The actual current account deficit was a touch worse than market expecations, enough to make the deficit as […]
Following on from our post on the minimum wage yesterday, the government decided to announce an increase in the minimum wage to $12, from $11.25. The money-quote from the stuff story has to be: “Initially business groups were opposed to lifting the minimum wage, which was set at $7 an hour when Labour took office […]